Aileen Shields Bryan

  26 Mar 26:

Who came up with the concept for the Sunfish? Aileen Shields Bryan, Alex Bryan's better half. As in Alex Bryan and Cortlandt Heyniger of ALCORT Sailboats 

"Aileen Shields Bryan, daughter of Corny Shields, was among the best female sailors of her time. Sailing from the Larchmont YC, she won the Women’s National Championship Adams Cup in 1948 as well as Atlantic Class and 210 Championships. In 1950 she and her crew, Margot Gotte, wrote a detailed, 3-page article for Yacht Racing Magazine, titled “How to Win a Sailboat Race”. 

Also in 1950 Aileen married Alexander Bryan. Her husband, along with Cortlandt Heyniger, had designed and built the Sailfish, which was essentially a sailboard with a lateen-rigged sail. Aileen had a hand in it’s creation: Aileen, after taking the Sailfish (which did not have a cockpit) for a sail while pregnant, thought the craft would be more comfortable with a place to put one’s feet. Her ideas were taken to the drawing board and thus the Sunfish, with a cockpit and a slightly wider beam, was born. The Sunfish has since become the most popular recreational sailboat in the world.

The spark that set off Alcort’s extraordinary success was Aileen, Corny Shield’s daughter and perhaps the best female sailor of the time: winner of the ’48 Adams Cup and Class Champion in both Atlantics and 210’s. Corny credits Aileen with introducing Long Island Sound to “the greatest spinnaker-handling asset to come to yacht racing – the spinnaker turtle”. But, Sunfish was her greatest gift to sailing. The story goes: After Aileen married golfer Alex Bryan in 1950, her time on the water was dutifully in a wet bathing suit on the rough sandpaper deck of a Sailfish. For America’s leading yachtswoman, this had its limits. Not wanting to flop around on its flat deck when pregnant, like a beached whale, she “insisted” that Al and Cort build her a wider boat with a cockpit well for her feet, so she could more naturally sail, seated athwartships holding a hiking stick. It’s easy to imagine her saying, “Hey guys, let’s make a real sailboat”, one that’s more fun and easier to sail properly than this uncomfortable, tippy board we’ve been peddling?”

Aileen’s concept was drawn out in dust on the shop floor by Carl Meinelt… a 1-foot wider Sailfish with a cockpit well. Sunfish was born to become “The most popular fiberglass sailboat ever designed, with a quarter million sold worldwide” said the American Sailboat Hall of Fame in 1995.

National Sailing Hall of Fame. Bryan, Aileen Shields - National Sailing Hall of Fame

Skipper uses the same technique for holding the tiller as in the photo above...

We think Aileen is the lady we see in early Sailfish and Sunfish advertisements.

Thank you Aileen.

Happy St. Patricks Green Boat Day!

 17 Mar 26:

Sláinte

Clark and Skipper

Sailfish Sportabout Plaque

 16 Mar 26:

I've seen these Alcort plaques in the past and wasn't really looking for one, but today this Alcort Sailfish Sportabout plaque popped up on fb Marketplace. 

It seems that there may have been a waiting period for the kit or built boat to be produced, but in the meantime you got a plaque to look at.

The "Sportabout" name dates to the late 1940s - early 1950s. I like these colors, maybe we'll use them someday. 

I bought a brochure a few years back on ebay, and think I paid about the same for the brochure as I did the plaque, neither was cheap :)

Learn more about our full size Sailfish WINNIE.

The Little Sloop Molly, American Revolution and Gunpowder

 12 Mar 26:

Captain John Pasteur and the little sloop MOLLY are on our minds...Pasteur was a Patriot Privateer and later a "Virginia Boats" Captain...

From the minutes of the Virginia Navy Board in Williamsburg... January 3rd, 1777:
"Capt John Pasteur appeared and agreed for the Sum of four hundred and twenty five pounds, to deliver unto the Naval Board of Commissioners a Schooner Boat called the MOLLY, together with the Rigging Tackle and Apparel belonging to her - The money to be paid him upon his giving a Bill of Sale for the said Vessel."
"Ordered that Capt John Pasteur take the Command of the Schooner Boat Molly this day Purchased of him by the Board."

John Pasteur was close friends with John Sinclair, both mariners and residents of Church Street, and both who eventually took commissions in the Virginia Navy. And both married to Wilson women, Honour and Ann. Also in the mix is Sinclair's sister Margaret, who married Edward Lattimer, who later became Pasteur's First Lieutenant. There is more to learn about all of them, and their ties to other Isle of Wight County Mariners.

But enough about people, let's talk about boats! The little sloop MOLLY was built in Baltimore in 1770 and her original registered owner was Josiah Parker. MOLLY had a crew of four men and her first Master was Charles Fulgham of Smithfield, and before March of 1774 MOLLY was sold to a syndicate headed by John Pasteur. In early 1776 she cast off with John Pasteur as Master and was sent "to southward," returning with 7500 pounds of powder....and we're not talking flour, although flour was a prized cargo as well.

Gunpowder was essential to the Patriot's cause, and it is mind boggling to picture MOLLY and her crew braving the hazards of the coastal Atlantic, the vagaries of the West Indies and evading British warships during her round trip voyage from the Tidewater. MOLLY's service continues until 1794, there is much more to her record, and Pasteur's, that we will get into this Spring. So stand fast!
(Reference and Image Credit: Lanciano, Claude O.. "Captain John Sinclair of Virginia." 1975.

Women's History Month - Skipper Edition

 15 Mar 26:

There's not may conversations that go like this...

Me: "I wonder if we could paddle SWEETNESS out with a SUP paddle and the sail rig down, rig the boat, sail it, then paddle back in with the rig luffing?"

Skipper: "Hand me the paddle."

Skipper and 1953 Alcort Sunfish ZIPZIP

 12 Mar 26: 

Skipper and ZIP, the 1953 Alcort Sunfish we picked up in 2013. Zip was number 13 of the first 20 Sunfish prototypes, Al and Cort built them and passed them out to family and friends to see if they liked the design. Evidently people did, the Sunfish has been in continuous production since that time.

Order The Sunfish Owner's Manual by Kent and Audrey

Sailmaker Jane Nelle

 14 Mar 26: 

On December 20 1984, the Bristol Phoenix memorialized Jane Nelle. Jane Nelle was a sailmaker at HMCo. beginning in 1923. She trained under sailmaker Billy Paine, and left with Paine in 1933 when he began his own sailmaking business. Her career spanned an era of great transition in sailmaking, from cotton to nylon and Dacron. Today she is thought to have been the first female sailmaker in Rhode Island. She later worked at Thurston Sails in Warren, RI, for fifteen years. She has since been featured as part of an exhibit about remarkable Rhode Island women at the Roger Williams University Library.

Lady Phyllis Brodie Leslie Gordon Sopwith

 14 Mar 26: 

Phyllis Brodie Leslie Gordon Sopwith knew how to take a picture. She was regularly photographed at the helm of the America's Cup challengers ENDEAVOUR and ENDEAVOUR II, and always dressed for the occasion. Her official capacity onboard was timekeeper, which she performed when the yachts competed in the 1934 and 1937 America’s Cup races off Newport. The first ENDEAVOUR, a steel-hulled 130 foot yacht that introduced the quadrilateral genoa to J-class racing, came very close to winning the Cup in 1934 against the W. Starling Burgess designed RAINBOW (HMCo. #1233).

ENDEAVOR I ahead of ENDEAVOR II. 1937. HMM Archive.

Elizabeth E. Meyer - Yacht Restoration

13 Mar 26:

Folks are sometimes amazed at what we do with basket case boats...and we are too...but here's a sailor who has made quite a mark on yachting, with her restoration of the J class yacht ENDEAVOR and establishment of the International Yacht Restoration School, Elizabeth Meyer.

Miss Winnifred Sutton and WEE WINN

8 Mar 26:

Nice looking boat we saw at the Herreshoff Marine Museum, named WEE WINN.

Image HMMCo

LOA 23’10” LWL 16’3” Beam 4’6” Draught 3’0”

"Launched in June of 1892 the Herreshoff fin keeler shown above was shipped to Southampton, England and into the capable hands of Miss Winnifred Sutton. At a time when a woman sailor could be described as not only skillful but “plucky” the combination of Miss Sutton’s ability and Nathanael Herreshoff’s innovative design won 20 of the first 21 races of her first season.   According to the designer’s grandson, Halsey Herreshoff, “Over Wee Winn’s long racing career, she proved herself the decisive champion of the Solent.” (IRYS, 2021)

Love the tiller.

Image: HMMCo

Herreshoff Marine Museum

International Yacht Restoration School